Events

Ken McKinlay will present a “Back to Basics” series as Education Talks in 2023/24

Target audience: beginner to intermediate. Here is a short  video of Ken explaining what will be covered in these presentations.

September: England and Wales
October: Ireland
November: Military Service
January: Scotland
February: Census Records
March: Civil Birth, Marriage, and Death Registrations
April: Church Records
May: Immigration and Emigration

See details on each monthly meeting announcement. Recordings of these presentations will be available to members in the Meeting Videos and Handouts in the Members' Area of the website after the monthly meeting.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here. This registration covers both events.
  

Back to Basics: Ireland / 9 a.m.

Presenter: Ken McKinlay

Researching ancestors in Ireland can often be a challenge due to many issues, not the least being the tragic events at the Four Courts in 1922. In this Back to Basics talk, Ken will highlight the sites and resources that might just help break through your Irish brick walls.

From Derry to the Pontiac: The Dales of Clarendon / 10 a.m.

Presenter: Nancy Dale Conroy

Local author, Nancy Dale Conroy, will walk us through her experiences in researching and writing the story of her Dale ancestors’ journey from Derry to the Pontiac. The story begins in Ulster in the seventeenth century and ends in the early twentieth century in Clarendon Township, Quebec. The story documents the experiences of the Dales as they adapted to the wilderness and as they contributed significantly to the founding of the village of Shawville, Quebec.

Nancy Conroy was born in Shawville, Quebec in 1948. Although the family left town shortly after she was born, she has retained a strong attachment to the area. In 2015, she decided it was time to find out more about her Clarendon Dale ancestors. Seven years later, the results of her research have been captured in her book, From Derry to the Pontiac. She is cooperating this year with the Shawville 150 Committee as the town celebrates its 150th anniversary.

Leaving Their Scottish Homes: What Were They Thinking?

BIFHSGO's Virtual Annual Conference
Saturday/Sunday 28-29 October 2023

See the  conference  page for details

Note change of date

This is a hybrid meeting;

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here. This registration covers both events.
  

Back to Basics: Military Service/ 9 a.m.

Presenter: Ken McKinlay

Finding records for those who served in the military can sometimes be a challenge due to losses during the Second World War and privacy restrictions. During this Back to Basics we will look at where to find those surviving records.

"We Will Remember Them" (Family stories from times of war) / 10 a.m.

Join us for "We Will Remember Them"—family stories from times of war. Note that our November monthly meeting will be held on the third Saturday of the month to avoid conflicting with Remembrance Day. During our annual remembrance-themed meeting, several BIFHSGO members will be sharing stories of their families' experiences during wartime.

This is a hybrid meeting;

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here. This registration covers both events.
  

Holiday Social / 9 a.m.

Great Moments in Genealogy / 10 a.m.

Purleigh’s Brick Walls: Discovering the Brotherhood Colony in Purleigh, Essex

This presentation reveals a happy moment when Veronica determined that her great-grandfather, Walter Birtles, and his young family joined the Brotherhood Colony in Essex in 1897. There was a further great moment when she learned of the link between the colony and the immigration of the Doukhobors to western Canada in 1899.

Veronica Scrimger is a retired librarian and telecommunications product manager. She has spent the last 9 years ‘walking in the footsteps' of numerous ancestors, both her own and her husband's. She intends to write about two or three of them for Anglo-Celtic Roots in the next few years.

A Bible Hunt, with another stone house at the end!

Beth Adams got hooked on genealogy when her Aunt Charlotte took her and her mother to visit the Betts House in Pickering.  The house was fantastic—but the family bible Myra got out to show them was the clincher! Inside that bible was a typewritten transcript of the family pages from an even older bible! That began a 30-year search for Aaron’s bible.

Beth Adams has been interested in family history since her teens.  Her late mother used to say she raised her children in nursing homes.  Beth didn’t mind as she enjoyed the family stories and photos.  She has been checking out the facts and sharing the stories ever since.  Beth is a retired teacher who taught in inner-city Toronto for 31 years.  She has retired to Pembroke with her husband, Hal.  She volunteers at the local museum, genealogy groups, and with Scouts Canada, and spends as much time as she can at the family cottage with her sons and friends.

It Could Have Been a Movie: Charles Roper & His Fiddle

A family story of a relative who sailed the seas, played the troops into battle with a fiddle made of a tin and also played for the Prince of Wales.

Fact or fiction or the plot line for a movie? During the isolation of Covid, Nancy, as the family historian, received an envelope of miscellaneous papers belonging to her late mother, which contained a picture of a Charles Roper standing on a table playing a violin, along with an unattributed newspaper article about this event. With time on her hands and the digital world at her fingertips, Nancy set out to discover the fact or fiction. This is the story of her great-grandfather’s eldest brother, Charles Roper, his adventures on the high seas and the people she met while uncovering his story.

Nancy Higgins is retired from IBM after a long consulting career. She now enjoys spending her time as family historian and indulging her passion for floral design. Nancy is related to three British home children and the proud descendant of two, her paternal grandmother and grandfather. Now residing in BC, she is thankful for the silver lining of Covid that allows her to continue her active membership in BIFHSGO. She looks forward to the day when her research is organized and in the meanwhile derives pleasure from the journey of discovering her roots and creating family stories to share.